SUMMARY : DNS resolver using /etc/hosts first

My question was:
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Has anyone configured the Domain Name Service resolver routines
for Sun4, SUNOS 4.1.1, such that lookups are first done in /etc/hosts, and
then DNS is consulted? My idea is that I'll build a very minimal /etc/hosts
file, just containing those machines referenced at boot time, and use DNS for
everything else. (We don't run Yellow Pages here.)
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karl@thuja.gsfc.nasa.gov replied:
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Rebuild libc.so with sources from Bill Wisner, available on
next.ucns.uga.edu [128.192.6.9] in /pub/sunfixes/resolv+.tar.Z.
(NOTE- this is based on BIND 4.8.3)

This allows you to make use of DNS and /etc/hosts, in the order
specified in resolv.conf (this is the way Ultrix does it).
Documentation is included in Wisner's distribution, but for SunOS 4.1.1
I had to remove mkstemp.o from /usr/lib/shlib.etc/tmp and from
lorder-sparc.

I put the following line in my resolv.conf:

order local,bind

This tells the resolver routines to look in /etc/hosts first, asking
the nameserver only if /etc/hosts can't resolve the name. This solves
a number of problems, including the ones you mention.
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kaiser@sunmanager.lrz-muenchen.de also replied:
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I modified the 4.8.2 resolver-Routines to use first the /etc/hosts and
then the resolver-Routines, you can get the new gethostnamadr.c, the *.o
and the bin for suns at ftp.lrz-muenchen.de
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I've just finished testing the resolver library from next.ucns.uga.edu,
and it does just what I wanted.

I also asked about ethernet traffic utilities for X11.
hasley@andy.bgsu.edu wrote:
----------------
I picked up a program called 'xtr' a while back. It should be in your
local comp.sources.x archive. From the dates, it appears to have come
out in late March. The README file says it was written by John Pochmara
(pochmara@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu).

--------------------

I had to fix a few minor problems to keep xtr from dropping core, but xtr
works fine.